The distributed denial-of-service attacks, which also targeted three
Israeli banks, were the latest salvo in a month-long offensive between
Arab and Jewish hackers determined to give the Middle East conflict an
online dimension.

Monday's hacking incident caused the stock exchange's website to perform
slowly, while El Al's online services were unavailable for more than an
hour.

Responsibility for the attack was claimed by a group of hackers,
claiming to be based in Saudi Arabia, which identifies itself by the
name "Nightmare".

It came days after a rival Israeli hacking group called "Israel
Defenders" published what it said were the credit card details of
hundreds of Saudis. Nightmare had carried out a similar stunt after
hacking an Israeli sports website.